Committees

Rachel works directly with the UKRI executive team to lead and shape policies and investments for open research across UKRI and the wider UK to promote better and more impactful research.  She has worked in education and research policy, with a focus on digital scholarship and infrastructure development, across national organisations including the former Higher Education Funding Council, Jisc and the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). She has directed national and international programmes that support knowledge creation, access, curation and impact, many of which have resulted in long-term sustainable services. She is an information scientist and expert in open science and has been an adviser to the European Commission. She is currently the UK representative on the European Open Science Cloud Steering Board. Rachel has been engaged with the Research Data Alliance since its creation and is pleased to be part of the UKRI team hosting the next plenary. 

Wolmar works to develop effective data management and Open Science practices for the biomolecular life sciences in Sweden through the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab), and in European federated research infrastructure initiatives with partners in ELIXIR, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and the European Health Data Space (EHDS). He is an active member of the RDA community, co-chair of the RDA Life Science Data Infrastructures Interest Group (2022–) and member of the RDA Technical Advisory Board (2023–2025). Before joining NBIS, he worked in digital scholarship, scholarly communication, and the management of digital repositories for research data, academic publications, and cultural heritage.

The Digital Curation Center (DCC) http://www.dcc.ac.uk/ promotes and supports open science through services for data management planning; advice and guidance; training;  consultancy on all aspects of open science, data management and reuse; engagement in international projects such as EOSCPilot, Skills4EOSC and RDA Europe 4; and organises events such as the International Digital Curation Conference. He is a member of RDA’s Organisational Advisory Board and chaired the programme committee for Plenary 17. Amongst other roles, he is chair of the Software Sustainability advisory board and a member of AGU’s Data Management Advisory Board.

Juan is the Director of the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure programme within the Scientific Computing Department at UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council. Based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Juan has been an advocate of open research for many years and was a central figure in establishing the Research Data Alliance and the European Open Science Cloud. Juan has given many keynote talks and has over 100 publications covering Software Engineering, Research Infrastructures and Open Research.

Hilary Hanahoe serves as Secretary General of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), where she leads a vibrant global community of over 15,500 individual members spanning 151 countries. In this role, she provides strategic leadership for RDA’s membership whilst serving as CEO of the RDA Foundation, the organisation’s legal entity.

Her responsibilities encompass the effective management of RDA operations, fostering relationships with funders and key stakeholders, and ensuring the long-term financial and organisational sustainability of this international initiative. At the heart of her work lies a commitment to stewarding RDA’s dynamic, high-impact community of volunteers who are dedicated to enabling open data sharing and reuse across the globe. Hilary brings genuine passion to championing the Research Data Alliance’s mission and supporting its collaborative community in breaking down barriers to global data accessibility.

Since the mid-1990s, he has applied his expertise in information technology to advance the digital transformation of scholarly communication and examine its impacts on science and society under the Open Science framework. He has supported the development of Japan’s Open Science policies through roles on committees of the Science Council of Japan, the Cabinet Office, and MEXT. Internationally, he has contributed to building consensus on academic knowledge infrastructures that can foster societal change. His work includes participation in initiatives of ORCID (ORAC), the G7, the OECD, UNESCO, and other international organizations.

Irina leads the planning, coordination, and delivery of plenaries, the RDA’s largest international community events.

With extensive experience in managing events, Irina has been involved in organising small private events, large international corporate conferences, and sport events (such as the XXII Winter Olympic Games). Irina enjoys leading challenging projects to deliver successful completion. 

The upcoming RDA 27th Plenary Meeting will be a special milestone, her 10th plenary to organise, taking place in her home country, the United Kingdom.

Elizabeth Newbold is the Open Science Theme Lead at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (UKRI-STFC). The Open Science Theme includes activities related to data stewardship, open repositories and library services.  She has a background in scientific information and libraries with a focus on open access, FAIR and open data.    Elizabeth is active in the international data community; she has been a member of the Research Data Alliance since 2013 (the first plenary she attended was P2) and is currently co-chair of the Data Steward Career Track Working Group. 

Steve commenced as Director of the UK Data Service at the University of Essex in August 2024, following 15 years as Director of the Australian Data Archive (ADA), at the Australian National University. As Director he is responsible for the strategic development and direction of the Service and leading the partnership of 5 organisations delivering the UK Data Service from 2024-2030. Steve has 25 years of experience in data archiving, survey data collection, and teaching of research methods in the social sciences. He is currently the treasurer of CODATA, the International Science Council’s Committee on Data; vice-chair of the DDI (Data Documentation Initiative) Alliance Executive Committee; and co-chair of the Research Data Alliance Social Science Interest Group.

CJ is a research officer, assessing researcher needs and developing national strategy for research computing, data management, and software in Canada. Before joining DRAC, CJ was a research associate with the World Data System International Technology Office, where his main project was supporting the RDA Global Open Research Commons groups. He is currently a co-chair of the GORC Interest Group and International Implementations Working Group. CJ’s background is in science communication, education, and astrophysics research with a focus on high performance computing. He also works part-time as the Education Coordinator for Discover the Universe, a Canadian astronomy education non-profit, and is a part-time student in the University of Alberta Master’s in Library and Information Studies program.